Today is a sad, sad day for America. Today’s vote confirms that far too many of our Congresspeople hold their loyalty to their ideology above all else — more important than their responsibility as our nation’s elected leaders and more important than the needs of their actual constituencies. This mean-spirited legislation was designed to provoke divisiveness and acrimony — and it has succeeded in doing just that.

Our faith, like so many other faith traditions, teaches that the community has an obligation to sustain its most vulnerable. SNAP is the epitome of this fundamental idea, successfully realized on a larger scale. SNAP represents our collective commitment, as a national community, that when times are tough, we will stand together and help families get back on their feet.

More after the jump.More than 70 years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his historic “Four Freedoms” address to Congress, asserting that Americans had a right to “freedom from want.” He understood that a lack of access to basic nutrition undermines a person’s ability to enjoy other fundamental rights.

Now is the time to support smart policies aimed at strengthening our nation’s recovery, not taking food out of the mouths of hungry people. We can rebuild our economy, but not if our fellow Americans cannot meet their most basic need for nutritious food.

We at MAZON are dedicated to working with conferees to negotiate an improved nutrition title. We remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure that every American is able to meet his/her most fundamental need: to eat.